Workmen's advocate., 1887-04-23
LABOR AND WORK.
LABOR IS THE ENEMY OF HU-
 MAN DIGNITY.
Work, Voluntary Activity for Self. Improvement Wage I.abOra De. fusion and n Snare Incen,
 tiyes tO OyerwOrk.
 Development.
BY DR. A. DOUAI.

We state difference between labor and work; We think that this difference ought to be observed in all writings on political economy. Labor is the opposite of capital, work is human activity for the pur- pose of useful production. Labor is working force employed by capital ists and e1ploited by them; work is a much more general and comprehen- sve expression. Labor is at war with natural laws, with the destiny of mankind, being involuntary work for others. The term work ought to be reserved for voluntary activity to ones own best, and the welfare of society.
 That such distinction is justified follows from the fact that man is an autonomous being who cannot be the means for the ends others. He obeys more or less the laws (in- stlncts, inclnatlons, talents) inborn in him, and only when he is allowed to do so does he feel really happy; the development of his gifts grows and he performs his best and notlest work. When, however, his n.aral inclinations are thwarted by forced work, by labor for others, his hu- man dignity is being dsgraced and, perhaps, crushed, he is being de- graded more or less to a working beast and cannot develop himself into reasonable being that obeys self-given laws.
 Work is the means not only for creating goods that support the ex- lstence of man and society, but also for the self-improvement of the in- dividual and of mankind. There is no really human existence imagin- able without work. But labor is the enemy of human dignity and self development.
 It Is an undeniable fact that no race, nation, tribe or sex is found anywhere but which likes work, self-employment, voluntary activity for useful and necessary purposes Likewise men as a rule dislike labor for the purposes of others, forced activity not of their choice. In this respect all men are alike, though it may not seem to be. There was time when slavery was in part neces sary for the development of science and art, which were originally the work of very few persons who needed leisure for research and dis coveries. But this time is passed, and slavery was abolished as neces- sary and hindrance to progress, at least within the civilized world.
 In place of slave labor another kind of labor has been introduced - wages labor. This is equally at war with humanity. It is true that wages labor appears like voluntary work, but 1t IS not. Slave labor may have been tolerated because it was enforced by superior power; but no independent tribe was ever found which would voluntarily work for wages. It is against haman nature and could never have been intro duced anywhere, except as a trans ltlon from enforced slavery or ser vitude into more voluntary activity.
 Indeed, by calling #age labor "free labor" and removing all the outward appearances of constraint it was that wage labor could be in- troduced at all into the most civil 1 ized nations. Even then the work CTS did not jump at it, but accepted the new conditions because they had | not their own means of work, they had no better choice, or only in ex- ceptional cases. This so-called free labor was greatly more productive for capitalists than slave labor had been. Under the impulse of seem-